NHS Reforms: not all bad news

By:
Gajendiran Thiruchandran

You don’t need to consult a savvy hedge fund guru to realise that the return on our communal investment in the NHS has been poor. Hospital waiting times have increased, hospital deficits are the norm, beds are in short supply, and superbugs are still a problem.

Patient care should be our priority but given the grim economic climate a less spendthrift and resourceful NHS is needed. Without substantial reform to the NHS, it would seem that “cutting the deficit not the NHS,” an election slogan coined by the conservatives, is a “mission impossible.”

The health secretary Andrew Lansley’s proposed Health and Social Care Bill has received fierce criticism from most quarters, including the BMJ whose scathing attack—beseeching us to “sweep the bill’s mangled remains into an unmarked grave and move on”—shows the extent of the BMJ’s indignation.

Great umbrage has been taken over the proposed expansion of the role of